the last time west virginia and kentucky backed a democrat was bill clinton in 1996. he won west virginia by 93,000 votes and kentucky by 13,000. four years later, gore lost both states and it was a 41,000 vote gap in west virginia. more than 230,000 in kentucky. the gap got wider when john kerry lost in 2004. you see the pattern here. president obama improved on those numbers slightly in 2008, but still lost both states and his numbers fell off the table, if you will, this past november, the gap nearly doubled to 180,000 in west virginia and he lost kentucky by more than 400,000 votes. but last year, the war on coal had become a familiar theme on billboards, campaign signs and on tv. coal related donors poured more than $12 million into the campaign. 90% of it to republican, believe it or not, but to blame the president's agenda doesn't take in the bigger picture. coal production has dropped because demand is down and easily accessible coal has disappeared. low cost natural gas and fracking threatens to cut them even more. never the less, the politics of the war on c